Re: Think I`m done messing around with coatings, final thoughts...

M.. while the rain drops were on the car I very, VERY lightly wiped the water off the hood only to find out the MF towel scratched the crap out of the paint...

Maybe a coating will help, but I would`ve expected that marring no matter what. Auto paint is very fragile, even the supposedly hard stuff (like mine, again supposedly, have).

Are you *certain* it was the MFs themselves? Like, uhm....you CD-test/etc. them before they touch paint? IMO 99% of the time marring comes from dirt/contamination getting pressed against the paint and then moved under that pressure, and avoiding that is a challenge.

Just wondering...I`d hate for you to do a coating and then *still* have marring issues requiring even more polishing.

Re: Think I`m done messing around with coatings, final thoughts...

Originally Posted by KEVINS

You need to retest everything on Black vehicles. It seems all people are concerned with is water beading but I want to see scratch/marring tests and the best way to see results are on Black.. You should sell everything you have then test them in Black..

ks

I have 2 black cars at home...that alone mighta cured me of my previous fondness for black. Like Accumulator said, paint is so fragile... and black is so `honest` that if you`re in a black car that is a daily driver it`s a recipe for sadness. We`re thinking of replacing the 2004 Vette with a new one next year...it`ll likely be a nice dark blue which although still somewhat `honest` with regards to defects, it does leave a bit of potential depression outta the picture. Like they say, "Black isn`t a color, it`s a career".

Re: Think I`m done messing around with coatings, final thoughts...

Originally Posted by BudgetPlan1

I have 2 black cars at home...that alone mighta cured me of my previous fondness for black. Like Accumulator said, paint is so fragile... and black is so `honest` that if you`re in a black car that is a daily driver it`s a recipe for sadness. We`re thinking of replacing the 2004 Vette with a new one next year...it`ll likely be a nice dark blue which although still somewhat `honest` with regards to defects, it does leave a bit of potential depression outta the picture. Like they say, "Black isn`t a color, it`s a career".

Dark blue is not a color it`s a part time job. Any dark color will be a challenge to looking clean. To me silver or white is boring, but it`s the easiest color to keep.

Re: Think I`m done messing around with coatings, final thoughts...

Maybe a coating will help, but I would`ve expected that marring no matter what. Auto paint is very fragile, even the supposedly hard stuff (like mine, again supposedly, have).

Are you *certain* it was the MFs themselves? Like, uhm....you CD-test/etc. them before they touch paint? IMO 99% of the time marring comes from dirt/contamination getting pressed against the paint and then moved under that pressure, and avoiding that is a challenge.

Just wondering...I`d hate for you to do a coating and then *still* have marring issues requiring even more polishing.

A DIY coating is VERY CHEAP compared to how much I have in this car so even if I spend $300 trying a coating that is cheap R&D. I bought these MF towels two years ago from the local paint supply store based on their recommendation when I first tried my hand at polishing the car and now thinking back these are why the paint looked like crap after I wiped the polish off. I have no doubt in my mind that these are pure crap.

My new MF towels that I have been using now are so much softer than the ones I pitched.. HUGE difference in them.

CSL Update; finally decon`d and washed it.

CSL w/ C2V3 applied probably sometime in January or February of 2017.
Around 15k miles since application, maybe run through a touchless soap/rinse only once or twice since then.

Vehicle is a 2014 Ford E250 van, 80K miles at application time, about 94K now, used daily from March thru current, parked outside likely 75% of the time. As a Technician vehicle for a swimming pool service company in NE Ohio the truck pulls in out out of a lot of residential driveways each season, obviously many with trees as there are faint scratches running along the side of the body. Prior to CSL application the truck got the full deal...decon, clay, compound and polish so paint was pretty near as flawless as it could be with regard to surface defects that could be removed by either Megs M101 or D300 on microfiber pad. The CSL did darken the paint a bit after application, giving it a deeper glossy look; I thought it was gonna be one of my favorites.

As I`ve mentioned before, the CSL was kinda an odd bird. After application and release `into the wild` it was among the worst of all I tried at keeping itself clean. Rain would always leave dirty/dusty waterspots, albeit easily removed for the most part. Some were a bit more stubborn. About 3 months in (maybe when C2V3 wore off?) the paint started to stay cleaner, matching many of the other coatings such as Cquartz. By the time I got to it last night, the things was looking pretty good despite the minimal attention paid to it during the past season.

Feeling the paint after a simple wash, the surface still felt relatively slick...much more so than the Gyeon Mohs did after a similar amount of time/miles. Using the `ol baggie test, there was some obvious contamination on the surface. So I hosed the whole vehicle down with Sonax Fallout Remover (and then agitated), then washed again. Probably about 60% of the roughness to the surface was removed and there was some visible bleeding from the Fallout Remover. After this process I really didn`t see any water spot staining or etching.

The Tech who drives this van says he does, in fact, have a few driveways with pine trees close enough to run down the side of the van which would nicely explain the marring (very light but easily visible). As I wasn`t going to do any machine work on this van, didn`t want to clay and possible mar up the surface. These scratches did diminish somewhat after an aggressive washing so perhaps a light clay would help? I dunno...

Anyway, I`d have to say that after the initial period of not staying so clean, the CSL performed nearly as well as the Gyeon Mohs; it didn`t stay as clean all the time but certainly had a better feel to the paint after 10 or so months. I`m not quite ready to give up on the CSL...there`s just something intangible about it that I like despite it`s initial poor performance at self-cleaning. There is perhaps a CSL/EXO combo in my future.

After the decon/wash/panel wipe (really starting to like the Gtechniq Panel Wipe) I dropped 2 coats of Gyeon CanCoat on it which I`ll top with IGL Premier later today...just because I can. We`ll see how that holds up over the NE Ohio winter although the mileage will likely be down to about 5k between now and March 2018 and the van will probably be parked inside 75% of the time this winter.

Will be going over the Cquartz coated vehicle in a week or two, may just decon/wash and top that with IGL Premier to see how it does this winter, then the 22ple HPC van after that, probably with a decon, wash and then 22ple HPC Finitura application. Just got a closer look at the 22ple HPC van this morning and it`s holding up better than any other vehicle I coated here last winter (with respect to self cleaning, gloss and overall appearance anyway)

CSL (applied 10 months ago) topped with 2 coats of Gyeon CanCoat; next to another van of the same `vintage` can still see the darkening/richness that the CSL added to the red paint (and yes, I pretty much ignored the wheel wells cuz` it`s just a fleet vehicle after all):

Re: Think I`m done messing around with coatings, final thoughts...

Kurt, you are such a great resource to keep us updated ! Thanks so much for what you have done and keep doing for all us even if there aren’t a million comments I’m sure many many many are benefiting and liking these posts

Re: Think I`m done messing around with coatings, final thoughts...

Budget, your reviews on these coating have been fantastic.

I`ve done 4 cars with Cquartz over the past 1 1/2 years. Because of your review, I decided to try the Kamikaze. The ease of use was incredible. I was thinking the Cquartz had more of the hard candy look but the car I did with Kamikaze was a different color so I realized this could be why. I then buffed the cquartz off half the hood and a door on one of the other cars and applied the Kamikaze. The gloss appeared to be exactly the same as the cquartz.

I am getting ready to do another car in a couple weeks and trying to decide what to use. Is Kamikaze still your favorite?

Re: Think I`m done messing around with coatings, final thoughts...

Originally Posted by DanHen

I am getting ready to do another car in a couple weeks and trying to decide what to use. Is Kamikaze still your favorite?

For the ultimate in protection, still a Kamikaze junkie although 22ple HPC is right up there as well. Personal cars are now all done in Miyabi x 2, ISM x 1, a coat of Infinity Wax every few months in spring/summer and use Overcoat as a drying aid after each wash. Each component adds a little something to the mix:

1. Miyabi is the harder of the Miyabi/ISM combo and gives a more intense, hard-type-gloss look. Putting a layer of ISM on softens the hard gloss, lending it a deeper, almost wax-like glow and really helps `float` and metallic in the paint and the Infinity Wax kinda adds a very subtle look, akin to a `relaxed gloss` look that really accentuates body panel transitions. The Overcoat I use as a drying aid seals it all in, acts a a sacrificial layer and gives a simple astound hydrophobic and self-cleaning character to the whole thing. I really think Overcoat is without a doubt *THE* best topper out there if you`re in a climate where your car may get rained on and then sit in the sun (while at work, for example). It seems to produce beads that, if they don`t just roll off the car while stationary, just kinda shrink up and go away without leaving a trace. It`s really weird...

Nice thing about ISM coat is you`ll generally use only 1/2 the 30 ml bottle for an average car (it only likes a single coat) and ISM also excels on black plastic trim, headlights, piano-black exterior trim, wiper arms...pretty much anything so it`ll take care of any trim you might use a separate trim product for.

Here`s a vid of the combo at 14 months; car had not been washed in about 2 months, sat outside 24-7 getting oak, maple tree leaves dropped on it, rained on, etc. This is after Gyeon Foam and bucket wash w/ Gyeon Bathe but before applying some fresh Overcoat so last time and booster was applied was likely 2 months or so ago:

2. 22ple HPC - Nearly as self-cleaning as Kamikaze, produces a very high gloss, molten glass look. Crazy easy application, it actually kinda hazes when time to be buffed off. The look isn`t quite as deep as the Kami combo but the gloss and self-cleaning are outstanding. I like it on light colored cars to produce max-gloss. It`s a high-solids coating that also contains fluorine which is likely what makes it so self cleaning.

Cquartz is moving up up the ladder in my eyes, didn`t think that much of it when applied to a fleet vehicle last winter but it has maintained it`s gloss pretty darn well.

You might wanna give 22ple HPC a try if you don`t wanna go all in on the Kamikaze stuff as it gets kinda expensive. The 22ple HPC is up there in cost as well but a 30ml bottle will get ya 2 coats on an average sedan. Downside is they recommend 12-24hrs between coats which can be kinda inconvenient. It`s a very, very nice product.